


Alone Together

by lofticries



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Apocalypse, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Falling In Love, Pseudo-Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2019-08-26
Packaged: 2020-09-27 08:22:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20404636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lofticries/pseuds/lofticries
Summary: If Vanya has to die in this empty wasteland, at least she’s going to die with Five.





	Alone Together

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Fiveya week!! This is written for the first day's prompt: "apocalypse." I've always wanted to write a Five and Vanya get stuck together in the apocalypse together and I hope I was able to do it justice. Honestly I could've written way more but it already got way longer than I thought it was gonna be lmao...
> 
> 1) I hc with Vanya being off her pills, she's a lot more emotional. She's not numb anymore, and it shows.  
2) There's not a whole lot of focus of the actual apocalypse, more just _them_ if that makes sense  
3) This was unbeta-ed and very sloppily edited so any mistakes are mine and I sincerely apologize!
> 
> [Alone Together](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuNTFGnVm4k) by Fall Out Boy, [Wasteland Baby](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4rKN_qW5DU) by Hozier, and [Apocalypse](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sElE_BfQ67s) by Cigarette After Sex are definitely must listens while reading this!

There are some things in life that are simply inevitable. Fate has enough of a grip on the universe to make it so. Whether disguised as free-will or destiny, certain events are meant to happen no matter what.

For example, it was always inevitable that Number Five would want to push his abilities to the next level, before he was ready. Youthful arrogance cancelling out anything his father could say to him. Out of a thousand different timelines, ninety-nine percent of the time, Number Five would go up to Reginald Hargreeves and demand he be allowed to time travel, and run out in a sign of teenage rebellion.

This is inevitable.

But then at the same time, there are some things, small innocuous details surrounding this one inevitable event that could change everything. Over a thousand tiny possibilities.

This particular morning, when Number Five storms out of the house, ignoring Reginald’s barked orders to return, his sister, Number Seven, is hot on his tracks. The rest of their siblings all share a moment of unified horror at the potential punishment the two of them will face, before turning back to their breakfast.

Number Five and Number Seven are not going to be punished.

It goes like this:

“Five, wait - “

“_Vanya?!_ What are you doing -”

“Please, I know you’re mad but don’t do anything reckless - “

“Are you here to stop me? Because I won’t, I swear to god I won’t, so don’t you dare - “

“I didn’t say that - “

“You know how important this is to me Vanya, you of all people _know _\- “

“I know, so please.“ A pause, smoldering ocean blue eyes burning into watery brown. “_I know._ Just - “

After that, there are no more words, just one small hand clinging to a uniform sleeve. Anger fading into confusion shifting into realization. Then, two hands interlocking, holding on tighter than either of them ever have before.

And then Number Five jumps.

-

The air is dry and dusty, full of ash and tiny particles of debris from the ruination that they land in for their final jump. It makes her throat hoarse and her eyes water. Vanya hasn’t let go of Five’s hand, even as he drags her roughly across the broken remains of their home, shouting out for Ben, Dad - _anyone_?

This is a bad dream, Vanya thinks to herself trying to ignore the horrible burning sensation behind her eyes. This is a nightmare and pretty soon she’ll open her eyes and she’ll be in her bed, sweat-soaked and shivering but safe. Both of them will be safe.

Five makes an injured noise. Vanya sniffs loudly, looking over his shoulder to see what he’s found.

A body.

Her heart stops in her chest. “Five - “

“Don’t look,” Five rasps finally letting go of her hand, staggering towards it on shaky legs. Vanya reaches out to him too late. “God, Vanya just - don’t look.”

She can’t listen to him. Her eyes are locked onto the scene, nothing but white static buzzing in her brain as Five gingerly examines the body with gritted teeth. He lifts a pale, limp arm and Vanya inhales sharply at the tattoo on the wrist.

Faded, but true. The Umbrella Academy’s symbol.

Five makes another noise, almost a sob. “Klaus,” he whispers and Vanya turns away to upheave the contents of her stomach.

-

It takes too long to bury their siblings. Vanya stops every now and then to drop to her knees and just cry, while Five watches her with a blank expression. It doesn’t feel real. Her siblings, more than a decade into the future, are all grown up and _dead._ They all died together in the same place and neither she nor Five were around to witness it.

_What could you have done?_ A nasty little voice echoes in her head. _You probably wouldn’t have even been there._

This makes her feel even worse.

Luther’s corpse is huge and even with the both of them pulling, it’s a struggle. “Damn it,” Five hisses angrily, letting a heavy arm fall back to the ground. “God _damn_ it!”

If Vanya was not so buried in her misery, she’d wonder if Five was holding back tears for her sake. But she says nothing in the face of her brother’s anger, staring down at Number One’s face - _dead dead dead_ \- feeling almost numb. To her, Number One was impossibly strong. The unshakeable leader. What could’ve possibly killed him? Killed _all_ of them?

Once they’ve dragged all of them out of the rubble, Vanya realizes something. Four bodies, not five. A missing brother. “Ben,” Five croaks out loud, realizing the same time she does and Vanya jumps to her feet. It is foolish, childish hope, but it is hope nonetheless. They walk around the ruins, yelling for their brother until their voices go hoarse.

Then Vanya comes across the broken remains of a statue. The plaque is somehow still intact. She reads it over and over, disbelieving at the cruel irony of them. “Five,” she sobs. “_Five!_”

Five rushes to her side and Vanya’s heart cracks at the broken, vulnerable expression that flutters over his face. His first slip all day. He falls to his knees next to her and Vanya rests her head on his shoulder, staining his uniform jacket with her tears.

_May the darkness within you find peace in the light._

-

When night falls, they curl up next to each other, taking shelter against some jagged beams. It’s not comfortable. At this point, Vanya has lost all hope that this is just a nightmare that they’ll wake up from. She buries her face in Five’s chest and he lets her. He rests a steady hand on her back.

“We have to go back.”

“I know.”

“We need to figure out what happened.”

“I know.”

“Tomorrow. We - “ His voice cracks here. Hesitation. His fingers clutch at her blazer and Vanya stays quiet. “We jumped forward easily enough. How difficult will it be to jump back?”

The wind is unforgivably cold making Vanya’s teeth chatter. She believes Five. She has to. They can’t be stuck here. They just can’t.

But when the morning comes, Vanya holds on to Five’s wrist and he tries to jump. Weak sparks of blue energy fizzle around his fists but the fabric of time and space refuse to open up for him. “Come on,” Five hisses, quiet at first. “Come _on!_” He swears and shouts and Vanya trembles but she does not let him go.

The betrayal of his powers is his breaking point. Her unflappable genius brother finally crumbles like the ruined city around them and cries.

Vanya holds him through it all.

-

She wants to protest when Five goes back to the bodies, looking for clues. “Oh Five, don’t. Leave them alone,” she cries, covering her face as Five inspects their siblings with a grim expression. In his words, they need to figure out what happened. Vanya just wants to let them rest.

At the end of it all they have is a date and a glass eyeball. Measly crumbs that don’t point in any direction. While Five is swearing to himself, Vanya wanders further into the rubble, staring hopelessly around her.

She finds Mom.

When Five finally makes his way to her, Vanya is just sitting blankly on the floor, staring at their mother’s broken mechanical face. She thinks that she should be crying, grieving her gentle android mother, but she has no more tears left in her to give. He rests his hand on her shoulder and her breath hitches. “We’re the last two Hargreeves left,” she whispers brokenly. She has always wanted to be special, extraordinary. But not like this. Never like this.

Five’s quiet for a moment. Then he takes her hand, tugging her up. She goes limply, burying her face in his chest for comfort. They’ve touched more in the past two days than they have the past ten years. Grief and shock naturally pushing them together to find some semblance of comfort. “No,” he corrects, gruff with emotion. “I’m pretty sure that we’re the last two people on Earth, Vanya.”

His words sound final, defeated. They sound lonely.

* * *

The next few days are all about survival. Shelter. Food. Water. They gorge themselves on bread with cold slices on cheese and fruit at a nearby gas station. “Eat fresh food while we still can,” Five reasons. He finds a wagon and loads it with non-perishables and bottles of water. They walk slowly through their ruined hometown, pushing the wagon, looking for things that will be useful.

She knows that Five is holding out a weak hope for other survivors.

Vanya mostly follows what Five directs her to do, fine with letting him take the lead. The sudden loss of her family and everything she knows has left her numb with shock. She’s just a puppet moving forward, Five tugging desperately at her strings. Five, her strong logical brother, who won’t allow emotion to weigh him down, already seems determined to push through any melancholy from this grisly situation to focus on more important things. Surviving. Time travel. Getting back home.

Vanya knows, without a shadow of a doubt, if she had come here without Five, she’d be dead within the week. On the contrary, if Five had come without her, he would have made it work. Five is a soldier. He knows how to survive. He has the will to live.

She is just ordinary.

It is stupid to let insecurities come bubbling up at a time like this, when there is no Dad to whittle her down, no siblings to compare herself to. They are dead, dead and gone, and those feelings should die along with them. But they persist, pricking at the back of her mind until her shoulders slump with it.

“I’m sorry,” she says while they’re looking through the department store for better clothes. Five finds them more appropriate shoes for trekking long distances and thick jackets to protect them from the filthy haze they walk through. He looks up at her with furrowed brows and the back of Vanya’s throat feels stings with unshed tears. “If - If I wasn’t here, you would - “

“If you weren’t here,” Five cuts in sharply, eyes smoldering. “I would go insane. Do you really think I would prefer to be here alone?”

They’re both quiet for a moment. Five shoves the jacket he’s found for her into her arms. Vanya takes it, blinking wetly. “Believe me Vanya,” Five says, much more gently than before. “I wouldn’t dare lie about this. I’m glad you’re here.”

She buries her face in the jacket to hide her tears.

-

On the third day, Vanya starts feeling strange. She can’t hold down their breakfast - string cheese and jello - and vomits right after. Five watches with worried eyes as she sinks into a ball, panting raggedly. The food is too overpowering, the sun is too bright, it’s loud - why is it so loud? It’s just the two of them but she can hear Five’s distressed breathing and the pounding of his heart, screwing directly into her skull. A pain so intense she thinks she’ll pass out. “Vanya?” he calls, crouching over her. She groans because he’s _too loud._ He repeats her name, grabbing her shoulders and trying to sit her up. She flinches at his touch. Her whole body feels like an exposed nerve, hyper-sensitive and twitchy.

He asks her what’s wrong but Vanya can’t look at him directly in the face. She shuts her eyes instead. Everything feels like too much. She wants the ground to crack open and drag her down so that she doesn’t have to deal with the sounds or the smells anymore.

“Vanya, please.” Five sounds scared and it hurts her heart as much as it hurts her head. “You have to tell me what’s going on.”

“I don’t know,” she manages to whisper, using every single bit of energy she has just to form words. The wind is roaring around them, loud and sharp. It’s the last thing she hears before she passes out in Five’s arms.

When Vanya awakens, it’s night time and it’s darker than usual. She shifts out of Five’s hold to stare up at the clouds in the sky. She doesn’t feel as bad as she did this morning but she does feel… different. Her skin is pebbled with goosebumps. Her ears ache. Her head is still killing her.

Something is wrong. Something is very wrong.

“You’re awake.” She can’t really see Five’s face in the darkness but she can hear the worry in his voice. She can hear the frantic beat of his heart. She reaches her hand out to him and he takes it with a shuddering breath. “I thought you were _dying._ That - that the food I found you was poisoned.”

Poison. Something clicks in her brain. “My pills,” Vanya says dully. “I’m supposed to take two every day. Day and night.”

“You think it’s withdrawal?” Five’s sitting up with her now, rubbing her shoulders. She leans into him with a sigh. His heartbeat is still so loud but she wants the comfort of his touch enough to bear with it. “What were your pills for?”

It sounds stupid but - “I don’t know,” she admits. “I’ve… been taking them forever. It’s for anxiety I think. They make me feel…” she struggles to find the right words. “Numb.”

Five is quiet, brushing her hair out of her face. Surprisingly tender. “We’ll try to find a pharmacy. They must have some kind of medicine somewhere.”

They don’t find a pharmacy but Five manages to grab a hold of some Tylenol from the convenience store where they found all their food and water. Vanya forces it down with some crackers and while it helps with her headache a little, nothing stops the strange sensitivity of her body. “Everything hurts,” she whines quietly to Five because she has no other way of describing it. She’s never felt like this before. There’s nothing to compare it to.

This continues for a few more days, Five getting progressively more worried and Vanya getting increasingly more incensed. He asks one day if it’s, perhaps, womanly issues related to puberty and Vanya explodes on him, irritable energy bubbling up inside her. “I think I’d notice if I got my stupid period! I don’t know what’s wrong with me - everything is too loud, my skin feels all weird - “

Five’s eyes are wide with shock. “Vanya,” he tries to interject but Vanya won’t let him.

“ - and I’m so cold at night no matter how many blankets you wrap me up in and I’m so _tired_ Five. I just. I hate it!” She finishes her little rant, feeling something rush out of her, and the two of them watch a large piece of rubble from a half-broken building crack and splinter in front of their eyes. Five seizes her wrist and tugs her backwards so that they avoid the crash but it still echoes deafeningly in her ears and Vanya yelps with pain.

Five’s shaking her as her ears ring. “Vanya? Vanya, look at yourself. You’re _glowing._”

Vanya looks down at her hands, trembling and emanating a soft white glow, and promptly faints.

“That old bastard lied to us,” Five tells her grimly once she wakes up. _She_ made the building crack, _she_ caused the winds to blow. She reels with the truth, staring at Five with undisguised disbelief. “You’ve got powers. Your pills must have been controlling them somehow. Vanya, you’re not ordinary. Not at all.”

She throws up.

It’s hard to explain what exactly Vanya goes through after that revelation. She feels elation and sorrow in equal measure. And the fury. So much fury blistering inside of her, her small body can’t possibly hold it all in. And she _feels_ them so intensely, in a way she never has before. It’s as if everything she ever felt before was just a pale, poor imitation of actual emotions, her pills robbing her of feeling anything genuine.

It makes her sick.

Five hangs back when she goes through her emotional outbursts, crying and shouting it out, while her power resonates through the wasteland, broken parts of buildings bursting with her anger. Devastating the landscape around her even more so it matches her wrecked insides.

Whenever she finishes, breathing hard with tears dripping down her cheeks, Five approaches her quietly to sit her down and wrap her in his arms. He runs his fingers through her tangled hair and hums her favorite Vivaldi, clumsy and out-of-tune, until she is crying for other reasons entirely.

* * *

The years drag by slowly. At one point their food starts to run out so their meals mostly consist of cockroaches and boiled water. Vanya stays tiny, thin enough for her ribs to poke out, all her softness leaving her until she’s just a sharp skinny thing. Despite their mutual malnutrition, Five shoots up several inches until he’s a good head and a half taller than her. “I don’t understand how you grew while I’m still the same height,” Vanya seethes as she checks his height with an old roll of measuring tape Five found years ago. Five’s got an amused smirk on his face so Vanya complaints aren’t too authentic.

There’s not a lot that makes either of them smile anymore. Happiness is valuable and she gladly soaks in every little bit they can get.

Their homebase is in the library ruins because there’s a sturdy wall still standing that can protect them from the wind. They found a beat up mattress years ago and share it with a large sheet draped over them, tied to a beam leaning against the wall. “It’s sort of like camping,” Vanya pointed out when they first constructed it. Five rolled his eyes and pushed her into bed.

Over the years, their little space has grown cluttered with things they’ve collected on their daily excursions, some useful some not. Amongst the useful things are a varied toolbox, a mirror, a working Walkman, sleeping bags for when they go out, a big pot for boiling water, a lighter, a flashlight with a pack of batteries Five hopes won’t die in the next few years, along with other things important for ‘what if’ scenarios. The random things include a stuffed teddy bear (“Don’t look at me like that Five, Dad never let us have toys!”) a complete set of collectible baseball cards, various beauty products, a large octopus figurine Five brought home claiming to honor Ben, and a guitar Vanya has been trying to learn to play.

Once, Five nearly brought home a mannequin from the department store. Upon Vanya’s strange look at him, he defended himself with: “She looks like you! Look at her wig!” Needless to say, Vanya had put her foot down on that.

Five always calls the library ‘homebase’ because ‘home’ is back in the past, in the Hargreeves mansion with all of their siblings, alive and well. But Vanya has tried her best to make it feel like an actual home. Their space is covered with books where Five writes all of his time travel equations. Reading is Vanya’s favorite past time whenever Five gets too buried in himself, so she marks the books that are hers with yellow post-its. They each carry a pocket knife and Five has a few guns he’s found. “Just in case,” he told her when he brought them back, Vanya’s eyes wide and frightened.

Privately, she doesn’t see the point. Five keeps track of the days they’ve been stuck in the apocalypse by carving tally marks on another piece of smooth wall still standing. Today is day one thousand five hundred and twenty two. Over four years of being stuck in the apocalypse, not coming across a single soul besides their own. Vanya never says anything but she doesn’t think they ever will.

It’s her and Five, stuck together forever. For better or worse.

Their eighteenth birthday comes up and Vanya gets out the last of the Twinkies that she’d been saving for this and Five surprises her with several bottles of wine. They both laugh at each other when they present their ‘gifts.’

“Happy birthday, Five,” Vanya says kissing his thin cheek. To her surprise, Five’s face turns a warm pink, looking down at the ground before mumbling it back at her. She can hear his heart thudding in his chest. After a moment’s hesitation, he kisses her back, clumsy and sloppy, closer to the corner of her mouth than expected.

Vanya’s heart beats unsteadily along with his.

“Let’s eat,” he suggests. Vanya nods dumbly.

The Twinkies don’t taste as good as she thought they would and Five frowns through his bites. “No expiration date my _ass,_” Five mutters, drowning the taste with a swig of wine. The wine has got a bit of a rancid aftertaste but Vanya finds she prefers it to the strange staleness of the Twinkies. She drinks along with him, head spinning quicker than she thought. “Are you drunk?” Five asks incredulously when she randomly starts giggling. “Lightweight.”

“Oh, shut up,” she snorts, pushing his shoulder. Five smiles at her, a real smile, lips red from the wine and Vanya’s chest feels so full. She pushes her face into his shoulder, nuzzling him, and his fingers come up to her hair. It’s a stupid thought but at the moment she’s _grateful_ for being able to be stuck with him. The years alone together forced them into a kind of intimacy they never would’ve had if they had stayed at the Academy. They grew up wild and feral and clinging to each other desperately.

Five was the most important thing in her desolate life and she knew, without a doubt, that she was just as important to him. They were twin moons, eternally stuck in each other’s orbit.

Vanya hates this miserable world that they live in but she likes that she has Five all to herself. His undivided attention and affection that grows every day. It doesn’t make any sense but she’s always been ridiculous when it came to her feelings for Five.

“If we were back home,” Five slurred, interrupting her thoughts. “I would’ve gotten you a Walkman. With a tape of all the classics. Tchaikovsky, Pachelbel…”

A wave of fondness surges through her. Her stoic serious brother, with little regard for sentiment, could be sweet when he wanted to be. “With what money, you goofball?” she asks him, poking at his cheek.

“I’m eighteen! I would’ve had money!” he protests. “From a _job_ or something…”

Vanya hums. “Well, if we’re playing pretend…” She ignores Five’s outraged noises. “...I would’ve gotten you plane tickets. To the Exploratorium in San Francisco.” If Vanya had to choose, she’d rather go to a museum of art or history but she knew Five would enjoy anything science related.

Five falls silent. He squeezes her shoulder so hard it almost hurts. “We can still go,” he says hoarsely, voice thick with emotion. Vanya blinks away the sudden tears at burn in her eyes. “I’ll plan the trip. Make an itinerary. I’m sure there’s plenty of places to see a live orchestra in San Francisco.”

She laughs wetly. “We can see the ocean,” she says wistfully. “I wonder if it’s as big as the books say it is?”

Five buries his face in her hair and inhales sharply. Vanya snuggled more into his chest, holding on to him with all her might.

As far as birthdays in the apocalypse go, getting drunk and cuddling with her brother wasn’t a bad way to spend it.

-

The year they turn twenty, Vanya gets sick. It starts off as a few sniffles she attributes to the dusty air, then a dry cough that rattles her lungs. By the end of it, she’s got a full blown fever and she’s delirious with heat, Five pressing a damp towel to her forehead to try to cool her down.

“Don’t leave,” she cries when Five gets up to say he’s going to look for medicine to lower her fever. It’s her sick-brain talking but Vanya is _terrified_ that if Five leaves her now, he’ll disappear for good. He holds her clammy hands in his and murmurs soft reassurances until she falls asleep.

During the day she gets the chills so Five keeps her wrapped up in blankets but at night she burns so hot she thinks she’s going to burn alive. “I’m dying,” she croaks when she gets up again to request water. Five, who’d gotten up every time without complaint to boil some for her, stiffens at her words.

“Don’t say that,” and if Vanya wasn’t so sick she might hear the genuine fear in his voice. “Vanya, please, please don’t ever say that.” He tips her head back, gentle as anything, to help her drink the water. He gives her another pill to swallow and holds her until she falls asleep.

Vanya dreams a lot about the end of the world during these heated nights. Her dead siblings all rise and stare blankly at her as she begs them to tell her what happened. “Five and I will fix it,” she tells them but then panics because where’s Five? _Where’s Five?_

She wakes up, weeping for him, and Five awakens immediately. He presses a cool hand against her forehead and she cries out his name. “You’re burning up, Vanya.” Vanya doesn’t like that. She doesn’t like being too hot. She also doesn’t like the sound of Five’s voice right now. He doesn’t sound like her regular brother.

Her clothes are soaked with sweat and Vanya is too disoriented to think anything of it when Five peels them off her with hesitant hands. He slowly wipes down her body with an old cloth, making her whimper at every sensitive place he touches. He dresses her in soft flannel and Vanya reaches up to touch his face. His eyes are surprisingly bright.

“You can’t leave me,” Five says softly in a tone she’s never heard before. He takes her hand from his face and kisses it. “Vanya. Don’t leave me.” It’s an echo of what she begged of him in the early days of her sickness.

_I would **never** leave you,_ she tries to respond to him. Her vision keeps going blurry and she can’t hear the rest of his words. She falls asleep before she can try to.

When Vanya’s fever finally breaks, Five slumps against her, wrapping his arms tightly around her waist, resting his head on her chest. His tears soak through her shirt and Vanya embraces him weakly, her own streaming down her cheeks. Neither of them ever speak of it again.

* * *

It’s an accident when she comes across him during his ‘alone time.’ She’d been taking a nap, curled up next to Five while he scribbled equations into a book. When she woke up, the book was there but Five wasn’t and she’d stumbled to her feet, panic rising in her throat.

She and Five were both solitary creatures. Introverts, Klaus would call them. Growing up, Vanya valued her time alone as much as she did her time with Five. She was lonely without any of the siblings to reach out to but she had enjoyed reading, listening to music, and playing violin on her own. Just as she knew Five liked to research in solitude.

These habits passed on even in the apocalypse. Besides going to the toilet, the two of them had their designated ‘alone time’ where Vanya needed to be far enough from Five that she couldn’t hear his breathing and Five simply wanted to go through his equations, swearing and groaning without Vanya asking if he was alright.

But they always _tell_ each other. That was important. Vanya doesn’t mind being alone, but she minds not knowing where he is. She nearly trips over the rubble in her haste to find him, despite the fact that she’s gotten skilled at walking the treacherous paths of their wasteland.

She’s about to start shouting for him when she comes across him, leaning against a half-formed concrete wall, all in one piece. Relief floods her system, but before she can shout out to him, scold him for leaving without warning, she notices something else. Five’s bent over, breathing hard, biting his lip and -

\- touching himself. Five’s touching himself. He’s got his dick in his hand, hard and red, and he’s, well, _jerking it._

Right about now would be a good time to turn around and give him some privacy but Vanya’s feet are rooted to the ground.

Theoretically, she knows about sex. She’s read enough about it, not just the clinical technical words of biology textbooks but in the heated passionate prose of romance novels that she hid away from Five. Sex in those novels were ardent words of love and the fervent writhing of bodies together. Love rods going into wet flowers, and all that nonsense.

There’s nothing to prepare herself for the way Five touches himself. His hand is rough and quick, letting out grunts that sound more animal than human. Inappropriate, unbidden curiosity is rising inside of her. Does his dick hurt? Did he do this every day? What was he thinking about?

The last question sends a surprising bolt of heat to the pit of her stomach. Vanya has never really touched herself. Sure there were times in the morning she woke up with an ache in between her legs that felt much, much better when she squeezed her thighs together. But she never really felt the need to, that heavy tension in her body usually fading away once she got up to find some roaches for breakfast. Plus with Five always around there wasn’t enough privacy to really explore herself. She’s familiar enough with her body but not in the practiced way Five’s touching himself. Vanya’s in her twenties now so maybe it’s about time she started getting wise.

A look of pure ecstasy crashes over on Five’s face and that heat swirling in her stomach only intensifies. “Oh,” she says dumbly just as Five finishes, white liquid coating his fist. He’s still rocking into his fist, his shoulders slumping, his release easing up the tension on his body.

His eyes open to see Vanya scrutinizing him curiously and he lets out a decidedly very-unmanly shriek. “Vanya, what the fuck are you doing?!”

She flushes. “You left me,” Vanya replies petulantly, shifting the focus onto him instead of trying to explain why she was still looking at him. “I woke up and you were gone so I went looking for you.” She shifts a little on her feet, unable to take her eyes off Five’s dick, still half-hard and leaking.

Five notices where her gaze is at and turns a furious shade of red, scrambling to pull his pants up, as he spits at her. “Yes well, clearly I wanted to be _alone!_”

“Well,” Vanya feels a little awkward but not at all ashamed. They had seen too much of each other for shame to be a thing that existed between them. “Next time you want to jerk off, just tell me. I’ll leave you alone.”

She laughs a little at the horrified expression that comes over him. “_Vanya!_”

For reasons Vanya can’t fathom, Five remains embarrassed about the incident for awhile, more snappish and short with her than usual. He even sleeps with his back turned to her instead of holding her in his arms like they’ve grown to prefer. Vanya doesn’t take it as a slight and simply plays at big spoon for a few nights, figuring that Five will get over it eventually.

Still, the next time he wanders off for ‘alone time’ she can’t help but tease him. “Are you going to masturbate?” she hollers loudly as he walks away from homebase. To her delight, Five turns a furious red, flipping her his middle finger before continuing to stomp on.

-

Five and Vanya have always gotten along as children. They were each other’s favorites for a reason and usually any minor argument that would arise was easily smoothed over. This is the case for the two of them alone in the apocalypse as well, working seamlessly as a unit when it came to scavenging for materials or tracking down dinner.

But Vanya is bolder the older she gets. Now, there are some habits that Five could get away with as children, that she won’t stand for anymore. One of these things is Five’s tendency to get caught up in his work. Vanya understands that it’s important to him, vital for the two of them to get back to the past, but she hates when he gets so lost in his equations he forgets to take care of himself.

“That’s enough for today,” Vanya tells him when she catches him nearly falling asleep over his notes. “You’ve been up since sunrise, go take a nap.”

“I’m nearly finished,” Five waves away her concern with a frown. “I’m so close to a breakthrough, I know I am.”

Vanya watches him with hawkish eyes and immediately pulls his book away when his eyes stay shut for more than thirty seconds. Five snaps back awake, glaring up at her with annoyance. “What the hell Vanya?” he hisses. There’s genuine anger in his voice and it spooks her but she won’t back down.

“I’m pretty sure Einstein took breaks. Newton too. A nap won’t get rid of your breakthrough, Five. You have to take care of yourself.”

Five scoffs at her. “Newton and Einstein would have worked until they passed out if they were stuck in the fucking apocalypse! Vanya. Give me the book.”

Vanya holds it to her chest. “You’ve barely been sleeping!” she scolds. “It’s not healthy.”

“How very astute of you,” he sneers. “You know what’s also not healthy? Eating nothing but _cockroaches_ for breakfast.”

He’s never snapped at her like this. Vanya’s frozen for a moment. “Five - “

“No, Vanya. It’s an insult that you think I’m simple-minded enough not to take care of myself but even more so that you think anything but getting back is a priority.” Five takes an angry breath. “Don’t you want to go home?”

“Of course I do but - “

“There shouldn’t be a ‘but!’” he snarls at her. “I don’t understand how you think interrupting my work is helping either of us. Sometimes I wish you would just - “

Five stops himself but Vanya is trembling with hurt anger. She wants to hear him say it. “What, Five? Sometimes you wish what?”

His jaw clenches. “Sometimes I wish you would just _leave me alone._”

Vanya throws the book at him. It hits his head with a satisfying thud. “Fine,” she says hollowly. The wind is starting to pick up. Bitterly, she hopes it blows his notes away. “_Fine!_”

She turns on her heel and storms off. Five doesn’t follow her.

This is their first real fight. Petty squabbles over who had to hunt cockroaches or which side of the bed was theirs didn’t count. Reasonably, Vanya knows it was only a matter of time and that it doesn’t mean that Five hates her. But it’s how she _feels_ now. Dust and debris blow out of her path as she stomps into town, furious tears trailing down her cheeks.

She walks and walks and walks, further than she expects. It helps, after an hour of calling Five every insult in the dictionary - “Stupid jerk! Arrogant asshole! Super idiot!” - she’s calmed down considerably. It’s a stupid fight, one born of exhaustion and irritation. She knows Five isn’t an idiot. She also knows that he’s frustrated and thinks the more he works on his equations, the closer he is to getting them home. For all his pragmatism, between the two of them, Five is the optimist here.

Vanya has no illusions about their situation or their future. Hope was never a luxury she could afford as a child so perhaps that’s why it’s easier for her to come to terms with it. But she sees no need to hurt Five with it.

What was she read in that couples therapy book when she was bored of fiction? Relationships are about compromise. Five puts up with some of her bullshit, she can put up with some of his. She walks around some of her favorite parts of the ruined city, where some faded billboards still have color and broken buildings have some traces of graffitti. There’s a pang in her chest as she passes by the remains of the Icarus Theater. Once upon a time, this place was her dream. Her life’s goal.

Now her life is Five and she misses him already. She won’t let an immature argument tear them apart. After her walk, she feels at peace with their fight and generous with her forgiveness, and heads back to the library with swollen eyes and a sniffling nose.

It’s nearly dark when she stumbles into homebase which surprises her. She didn’t think she had been out for that long. Vanya’s not prepared for an almost deranged looking Five to accost her, shaking her back and forth, questioning her immediately. “Where did you go? Don’t you realize how late it is?”

Vanya’s expecting him to pick another fight but she realizes he doesn’t sound angry. He sounds desperate, tinged with some terror. “Five, I - “

“I was worried,” he cuts in brokenly. Looking closer, Vanya’s heart sinks when she sees that his eyes are red-rimmed. “I thought you were _gone._.”

Vanya’s shocked when he folds her into his arms. He’s shaking. Her hands lift up automatically to caress his back. He shocks her further with his next words. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it.” Five, brimming with smug arrogance and well-earned confidence, has never apologized to a single person in their life. She’s the first.

“I know,” she says soothingly, once she gathers her bearings. “I’m sorry too.”

“Don’t leave me alone.” His voice is muffled. Part of her wishes she could see the look on his face. “I couldn’t survive without you. I couldn’t.”

Vanya thinks that’s complete bullshit. A boldfaced farce. Five could survive anything. But it’s very sweet of him to lie to her anyways.

* * *

Most mornings, Five rises before Vanya. He’d been a bit of a night owl back home, staying up late to read and research, but with no electricity in the apocalypse, he’s quick to sleep and quick to rise. Vanya enjoys sleeping in so Five doesn’t rouse her until an hour after sunrise, so that they can scavenge before it gets too hot. So it’s a surprise for Vanya to wake up with Five’s arms still around her, snoring lightly in her ear. She smiles sleepily, wriggling closer in his hold, content to sleep for another hour or so.

Then, she feels it. Something hard and solid pressed up against her ass. Vanya blinks in confusion - did Five sleep with his gun last night? She moves against him slowly, trying to get a feel for it, and Five lets out a soft noise. A _moan._

The fog clears from her brain. Oh. Oh! That’s his dick, isn’t it? The sleepiness leaves her almost immediately and Vanya lies there stiffly, mind spinning. What should she do? There’s no way she can go back to sleep, not with the knowledge that Five’s _dick_ was poking her. Should she just get up? Wake him? No, that doesn’t seem right.

To be frank, Vanya isn’t bothered or anything like that. She’s just _curious._ She has been ever since she walked in on Five touching himself months ago. She thinks about it a lot, the noises he made and the look on his face, and it always makes her feel hot under her skin. In the mornings, Vanya will sometimes touch herself to the memory of Five coming. She wants to see it again. She wants to touch him. She wants him to touch _her._

Vanya can say over the past few years of living in the apocalypse, knowing that she was just as special as her siblings, some things have changed for her. Namely how she processes things. The intensity of her emotions scared her in their early years, nearly made her sick, but she’s grown to embrace them. She’s thankful for the apocalypse for taking away her pills because she can truly feel things now. Dad tried to rob her of that and Vanya doesn’t forget it. Whatever she’s feeling, she accepts it wholeheartedly. Happy or sad, positive or negative.

That’s why, with pure unadulterated _want_ pulsing in her body, Vanya turns in his hold and presses her palm against the bulge in his pants. His erection twitches against her. Vanya watches, fascinated. “Five,” she whispers, unwilling to touch him any further while he’s asleep. “Five, wake up.”

Five groans into wakefulness, pulling his arms away from her to stretch over his head. “Vanya what - “ He sounds grumpy, unhappy with being torn away from his obviously pleasant dreams. He squints at her. Vanya smiles serenely.

It takes a few moments for his brain to catch up with his body. When Five finally notices Vanya’s hand on his dick he makes such a startled noise, Vanya nearly jumps. “Vanya! What, what are you doing oh my god - “ It’s amusing to see the normally composed Five flounder so much. Perhaps that’s part of the reason Vanya wants to touch him too.

“I wanted to touch you,” she says simply. Five gapes at her, face turning that pleasant shade of pink she remembers. “Is that okay?”

Five wheezes. “Is that _okay_ \- Vanya, this is completely inappropriate.”

She tilts her head at him. “Do you not want me to?” she asks, all faux innocence.

Five closes his eyes. Takes a deep shuddering breath. Vanya keeps her hand still. “It’s not a question of what I want,” he grits out. “It’s the fucking principle of it.”

Well, Vanya thinks that’s silly. It’s just the two of them here in the world. The only principles that matter are the ones that they decide on themselves. “No,” she responds, brushing aside his flimsy excuse. Whatever embarrassment Five felt could be dealt with. As long as he wanted it. “Are you embarrassed about me walking in on you? You shouldn’t be.”

A helpless look comes across his face. “Listen Vanya, I just don’t think - “

She steamrolls past him. “I want to. I think you want it, too.” Five makes a wounded noise, clenching his fists. Vanya considers this. Does he feel bad about wanting her?

Stupid Five. He’s all she’s ever wanted since they were kids.

“You can touch me too,” she offers, watching as Five’s eyes widen. Bingo. With her free hand, she grabs his wrist and gently presses it over her breast. She never wears a bra anymore and her nipples are always hard in the morning. Something like wonder settles in his expression but his hand is frozen stiff against her.

A sudden tendril of insecurity crawls into her mind. The years have not been kind to her. Malnutrition has made her skinny and unappealing - her period never came, stunting her growth even more. Her breasts are not much to talk about, no soft curves for Five to run his hands over. He’s a lanky skinny thing too but Five has always been handsome and is even more so as an adult, looking more like a man with his facial hair.

Vanya seems almost childlike in comparison. It dismays her to think that she could be unappealing to him. She pulls her hand away with a slight frown, backing away from him. “I’m sorry Five. I didn’t mean to be pushy.” An embarrassed flush covers her cheeks. “If you don’t want to we don’t - “

Five surprises her by letting out a growl, grabbing her shoulders and pushing her down on their mattress, crawling up so that he’s caging her smaller body with his. She can see his erection tenting his pants. “You think I don’t want this?” he asks darkly, squeezing down on her shoulders. “I’ve _always_ wanted this. What do you think I’m picturing whenever I jerk off, huh?” Vanya is silent, staring up at him with wide, stunned eyes. “It’s you, always you. You on your knees, sucking me off. Facedown in the dirt, taking my cock.” She gasps at that and Five laughs, a self-deprecating noise. “You didn’t expect that, did you? I want you so much it _scares_ me.”

Past her shock, Vanya can detect the hint of shame in his voice. Ah. So he _did_ feel bad for wanting her. Even now, he was trying to scare her so that she’d back off.

As if she could ever back off after a confession like that.

“I’m yours,” Vanya says simply. She can hear the way his breath hitches. “And you’re mine. We can do whatever we want to each other. If you want me in the dirt or on my knees, all you have to do is ask.”

Five responds by leaning down to kiss her.

First kisses in books are gentle and loving, the hero of the story telling the heroine how beautiful her eyes look in the moonlight before touching her softly, like a delicate flower.

There is nothing gentle about the way Five kisses her. It is hungry and hot, his hands pawing at her chest while he humps at her hip desperately. Vanya feels nothing like a delicate flower, getting slick between her thighs with every rough movement.

But she’s also never felt more loved. Especially when Five breaks the kiss for air, panting against her mouth. “_Vanya,_” he murmurs, reverent and Vanya feels the most delicious shivers crawl up her spine. Her hands go back to his pants.

“Let me touch you,” she insists, sliding a hand inside, past his boxers to grasp hard, silky flesh. Five hisses with approval, pushing his pants down hurriedly so that his cock is fully exposed to her. She takes a good look at it, the thick shaft, the red leaking head, and his swollen balls. Vanya wraps her hand around him properly and squeezes once, relishing in the noise he lets out. She jerks him off slowly, trying to remember the way he touched himself. Five watches her pump him with dark eyes, pushing her shirt up so he can palm at her breasts.

He groans almost like he’s in pain when she starts moving faster. “Am I doing it wrong?” she asks him anxiously. “Tell me if it’s not any good.”

“It’s amazing,” Five pants at her, starting to thrust up into her fist. “_You’re_ amazing.”

Emboldened, Vanya keeps going, enjoying every single wrecked noise she pulls out of Five and his rough touch on her. She loves this. She loves being this close to him and making him feel good. It’s exhilarating. She wants to be even closer.

It’s over sooner than she’d like. Five comes all over her chest with a shout of her name. Vanya watches in fascination as his cum shoots all over her. He nearly collapses on top of her, one trembling arm keeping him up. She reaches for his shoulders to bring him down, gladly taking his weight. He sags against her with a sigh. She kisses his forehead, full of affection for him, even with his cum drying on her chest.

“Alright then,” he says after a moment, his breathing going back to normal. His hands slide down to her hips. “Your turn.”

Vanya blinks. “What are you - _oh._”

Five makes her come for the first time with his fingers firmly circling her clit and his mouth on her nipples. The force of her orgasm shatters their mirror. Five kisses her when she expresses her horror once she’s come down from her high. “Let’s see what else you can break,” he suggests with a grin, spreading her wet cunt once more.

-

The apocalypse doesn’t offer either of them much except for time. There is plenty of time for Vanya to read every book she comes across. There is plenty of time for Five to go over his equations over and over. But aside from scavenging, hunting down cockroaches, and drinking alcohol - mostly Five’s hobby, not Vanya’s - there isn’t a whole lot to do.

With all this idle time, adding sex into their life is new and exciting. Something else they can do. Naturally this means that they fuck. A lot.

It’s not always rough and wild though it is for the first few weeks. There is a desperate need for them to be close to each other, skin to skin, a very physical reminder that neither of them are alone. They have each other and they love each other.

It takes some time for Vanya to convince Five that penetrative sex will be perfectly safe. She never got her period, there is no fear of her getting pregnant. The first time Five gets inside her, Vanya cries the whole time. Not from the slight pain, but the feeling of wholeness that she never felt until now. Physically she can feel every inch of him, filling her up, and she can feel his love for her, filling her heart until it’s overflowing.

“Five,” she weeps as he kisses her cheeks over and over. “_Five._”

“I know,” he soothes her, rolling his hips gently. “I know, I know. I’m here.”

Sleeping naked is ill-advised with the biting cold and only worn blankets to protect them but Vanya enjoys the skin to skin contact after they recover from their orgasms. Five is always pleasantly warm after sex, draped over her body with a relaxed, content expression she rarely gets to see. It’s another form of intimacy that thrills her.

She likes it. She’s greedy for it. Whenever she wants it, she can have it. And for a girl like Vanya who grew up in a house where nothing she ever wanted mattered, there is something so wonderfully revolutionary about that. She can’t help but chase after it whenever the urge strikes her.

“You’re insatiable,” Five murmurs groggily when she wakes him up in the morning with her mouth on his dick, sliding down as taking as much of his girth into her throat as possible. Vanya just hums in agreement, the vibrations making him groan before pulling off and straddling him.

She smiles down as she holds the base of his cock, the tip rubbing against her dripping folds. “Are you complaining?” she asks sweetly and Five’s eyes go dark, hands going to cup her ass and squeezing hard as she sinks down on him. Both of them sigh with pleasure when she’s bottomed out on him, cunt stuffed all the way full.

“No complaints here,” he rumbles when Vanya starts riding him slowly, running her hands down her own body. His fingers are digging hard into her ass and Vanya hopes he’ll leave bruises. She fucks herself leisurely for a while, rising and falling on him, Five’s eyes watching the motions of her body intently. “You like getting fucked, don’t you Vanya? Need my cock every day, is that right?”

Vanya shudders, crying out his name. Five is a talker, filth dripping easily from his mouth in a way that makes Vanya go hot all over. She is nothing much to look at but Five heaps so much praise on her that she always feels a little glorious whenever they’re having sex. “Yeah you do.” There’s a satisfied curl of his mouth painted on his face. “You _need_ it. My greedy little slut with her hungry little cunt.”

She bounces on his cock harder, her whole body tensing when Five presses his thumb to her clit. She wails when he makes her come, clenching down so tight on him, he feels even bigger inside her. He rolls her under him once she’s finished, pounding her into their mattress, hands gripping her hips tightly. “You’re mine,” he snarls with every thrust of his hips. “You’re mine, _you’re mine._”

“Yes, yes,” Vanya chants back, toes curling when he fucks her into another orgasm, making her shake and gush all over him. Five buries himself deep into her when he finishes, groaning low into her skin. His hands caress every inch of her body as they bask in the afterglow.

“Hey,” Vanya murmurs, Five absentmindedly kissing her neck. “I didn’t break anything that time.”

“...Your powers are probably getting weaker,” Five replies after a moment’s hesitation. He’s not looking at her as he speaks. “It makes sense. We’re eating less and our bodies aren’t in great shape. They’ll most likely continue to grow weaker the older we get.”

Five notably doesn’t mention how the same scenario applies to his own powers. He doesn’t need to say it. It’s written in the tension of his shoulders, in his face pressed to her shoulder.

They’re never going back home.

She almost feels bad for ruining the moment. But they have plenty of time to recreate more. She’ll make it up to him.

If Vanya has to die in this empty wasteland, at least she’s going to die with Five.

* * *

Vanya likes to think of things as Before and After their fateful jump. How things had changed so drastically. Before, in the small pockets of time Five managed to sneak in to see her, he dominated the conversation, telling her all his plans to time travel, specifics about time and space she couldn’t possibly understand. After, the snippets of conversation between them were more balanced. Five still babbled on but so did Vanya. Silence was commonplace between them, never stifling and always companionable. With Five’s slow acceptance that they weren’t going anywhere, they finally broach the topic of the past. Talking about their siblings, what they missed most, what they would’ve changed.

“I wish I could go back just to tell the old man ‘fuck you,’” Five declares once in the middle of rubbing Vanya’s sore feet. “Man, I would _kill_ to see the look on his face.”

Vanya laughs at him. “I think plenty of what you did was a metaphorical ‘fuck you,’” she quips, thinking of all the times Five openly rebelled their father. Moreso than any of their siblings. Allison used to say that she didn’t know if Five was extremely brave or extremely stupid.

He falls quiet. “I didn’t do enough,” he grouches out loud. “Especially where you were concerned.”

She sighs. “Oh, Five.”

“I should’ve done more for you.” Five gets surprisingly sentimental whenever the subject of how she was treated in the Hargreeves mansion comes up. “We all should have.”

Vanya takes her foot out of his hold, replacing it with her hand. Five lets her intertwine their fingers with a frown. “You were a child,” she says softly. “And it was so long ago. I’ve made my peace with it and so should you.”

Vanya has made peace with a lot of things. Before, she felt sick thinking about how much special Five was and how she would never be able to walk beside him. After, she knows that she’s special just like himl, and Five has always wanted her at his side.

She spent so much of her young life putting herself down, trying to fade into the background, she never let herself live. There’s not much in this apocalyptic life but she is able to love wholeheartedly with no reservations and that in itself is a gift. It’s been a work in progress, old habits popping up now and then, but Vanya is, all circumstances aside, genuinely happy.

Before, she thought of Five as beyond her reach. Now, Five falls asleep in her arms. However different they were at the start of their lives, the trials they’ve gone through have shaped them into equals. On a cosmic scale, the two of them on either side, it would come out balanced.

Vanya knows that whatever Five’s soul is made of, even the gritty dark bits, hers is one and the same. It’s a truth she keeps near to her heart, unwilling to let it go.

-

When the woman first arrives, they both think they’re hallucinating. Five’s got his head in Vanya’s lap as she reads out loud from _The Little Prince._ There’s a shudder in the air and a burst of energy and there she is, in red heels and a black trenchcoat, looking almost inhuman with her glowing skin and platinum hair.

Vanya drops the book just as Five reaches for his gun. The woman beams at them. “Well aren’t you two a pretty picture. The apocalypse’s own Adam and Eve!”

Her voice is sugar-sweet and saccharine but the hairs rise up on the back of her neck. Five aims the gun at her without hesitation. “Who the hell are you? How the fuck did you get here?”

The woman frowns. “You’re not being a very good host, Number Five. Why don’t you introduce me to your girlfriend?”

The both of them tense. She knows Five’s name. She knows _them._ But none of them know who she is. She continues to talk. “How long as it been now hm? Sixteen years, give or take? You’ll be thirty soon, oh to be _young._”

There is something deeply unsettling about this woman. Vanya inches closer to Five, wishing they could get up and run from this new threat. Five’s body is coiled with tension, a predator ready to strike. Only, Vanya is sure that they’re both the prey in this situation.

“I have a proposition for you,” she says once she realizes that neither of them are going to speak to her again. “It involves getting out of here, if you’re interested.”

Five’s eyes narrow. “Can you manipulate time and space too?” he demands.

She laughs at him. “_Too?_ Darling, you haven’t manipulated a damn molecule in years.”

His jaw tightens in anger and Vanya reaches out to touch him for comfort. The woman’s sharp gaze doesn’t miss the way he relaxes. “Aww you two really are in love,” she coos. “How very ordinary of you, Number Five.”

“If you’re not going to answer any of his questions, then you should just leave us alone,” Vanya snaps, irritation flooding her at the familiar barb.

“You really should think about come working for me,” that damn woman continues like she didn’t hear Vanya. “We can get you out of here, and you can travel anywhere you want, granted you follow your contract. And at the end of it, you can go back home! Doesn’t that sound peachy?”

It sounds like a trap. Five scowls. “And what exactly does this contract entail?” he asks sardonically.

The woman seems to look straight at Vanya, eyes cold and calculating. “Ensuring that everything is exactly the way it needs to be.” Vanya resists the urge to avert her gaze. She can’t look weak in front of her.

Five growls with frustration. “That doesn’t tell us anything.”

In that moment, Vanya loves him fiercely for referring to them as ‘us’ when it’s clear this woman is only interested in Five. The woman’s smile drops for a moment, regarding him with an almost disappointed look on her face.

“I can see you need some time to think it over. A few more years of this should do the trick, yes?”

And just like that, she picks up the briefcase and disappears in a rip of time and space that reminds Vanya too much of Five’s power. Not enough electric blue, but it certainly looked the same.

Five turns to her, agitated. “What the hell was that?” he groans out loud. “She can _time travel._ It was too fast, I didn’t get a proper look at how she did it.”

“She knows who you are,” Vanya says quietly. That means that they probably do accept her deal, and she knows them from the future. Or maybe, just Five. Dread settles in her stomach just at the thought.

Five’s clearly sulking but he’s determined. “She said she would be back in a few years. We’d probably go with her then, wouldn’t we?” He looks at Vanya’s face carefully. “What do you think?”

Vanya shrugs. There should be a sense of relief or elation at the sight of another human being. Especially one that can time travel. But she doesn’t feel any of that. There is only wariness and fear. “We can’t trust her,” she says slowly.

Five nods. “That’s obvious enough. It’d be foolish to trust someone like that. But if she knows how to time travel, she might be our only ticket out of here.”

Vanya wants to protest. But she knows that Five is right. His powers deserted him long ago and there’s nothing that they can do about it. Something must crack on her face because Five rises to envelop her in his arms. She pushes her face in his chest and breathes him in.

This is Five, who she has loved all her life and will love for the rest of her life. This is her brother, who she trusts more than anyone in the world. This is her lover, who she refuses to give up for anything.

“We have to be careful.”

“I know.”

“We can’t ever tell her anything.”

“I know.”

Her voice breaks at her next statement. “You can’t go without me.”

Five leans back at that, looking down at her face with surprise. Whatever he sees makes his eyes soften. “She’s right you know.”

Fear clogs up her throat. “What about?”

“I love you.” He says the words softly, treating them with the same care as something rare and precious. Vanya’s heart is soaring. “I always have. Didn’t you know?”

Vanya pulls him down for a kiss, her tears staining his cheeks.

They make love slowly, their mouths refusing to separate for long as Five grinds into her. _Love is amazing_, Vanya thinks as he pushes his cock deep into her over and over. Making her whole and leaving her empty every time. _And absolutely terrifying._

“I love you,” she chants brokenly when he brings her to the edge. “I love you, IloveyouIloveyou - _Five -_”

He holds her and Vanya revels in the sound of their synchronized breathing and heart beats. The sounds of the two of them alone.

-

Upon the woman's return, Five firmly states there’s only a deal if the contract involves two.

She simply smiles at them, a menacing Cheshire Cat.

Out of a thousand different timelines, a Number Five that gets trapped in the apocalypse will join the Commission, granted he does not die of dehydration or starvation. The way it happens isn’t always the same. Only the result. In this timeline, his sister joins him. Proof of how tiny details can lead to the same direction. Over a thousand tiny possibilities. Even with fate’s hand in the universe, things can twist and turn in unexpected ways.

Number Five always accepts thinking that he is going to change fate. That he can bring an end to the apocalypse he lived through. This motivation is doubly strengthened with Vanya Hargreeves at his side. He wants to return the childhood that she lost.

He wants to stop the apocalypse.

But then again, there are some things in life that are just inevitable.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not gonna apologize for the open-ended ending pls don't throw tomatoes at me


End file.
